


Search Party

by Astrarian



Series: Writer's Month, August 2020 [11]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Writer's Month 2020, could be romantic or platonic idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 12:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25849522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrarian/pseuds/Astrarian
Summary: Mae considers the light at the end of the tunnel.(Writer's month 2020 - Day 11: light)
Relationships: Mae Borowski/Bea Santello
Series: Writer's Month, August 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861909
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Search Party

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Wintersleep's song of the same name.

There’s a square of yellow on the ground. Clearly defined lines separate light from darkness. Like the light at the end of a mine tunnel.

Mae stares at the square on the floor. Sure, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel, yep. She made that speech. But no-one mentioned the tunnel was the deepest one in the mine and though she’s gotten out of that one there’s a dozen levels above. And the mine is called Dodge City. And everything’s pretty much held up by a prayer, or by, like, atheist luck. Don’t touch the floor if you can help it. Or the walls either, or the ceiling, or anything, really. Come to think, better if you can float. Have you tried flying before? Or maybe just stay right there. It’s something like safety where you are.

Something scrapes against the yard’s concrete surface and Mae feels her tail fluff out in surprise.

“Uh-oh,” says a voice. “Maeday, Maeday.”

Mae blinks, looks up. Next to the mirrored yellow square, there’s a small orange circle in the dark. Behind it, grey on gray on teal smudges squirm as they try to resolve themselves into recognisable shapes.

She does finger guns at the shadows. “Bae Bae, Bae Bae.”

“Never call me that again,” Bea answers. As she comes out of the dark space beside the square of Mae’s house, she becomes a person, and the orange circle becomes her cigarette. But the yellow squares on the ground and in the wall remain yellow and square.

“It’s the rhyme, come ooooooon.”

“Never,” Bea warns.

“Not even if you became a literal baby?”

Bea stays silent in that way that means she’s debating whether it’s worth challenging this concept. Or she’s about to get way too real.

“Not even,” she says.

“Aww,” Mae whines.

“Actual question,” Bea says. “Are you okay?”

“Mm. Just needed a minute.”

“You’re standing outside for no obvious reason. It seems like you’re not okay.”

“I mean. No. Yes. Ups and downs. Like always.”

“That’s… alright, let me rephrase. Are you going to come back inside? I mean, I assumed you needed a minute. But you’ve had, like, ten minutes. It’s generally frowned on for the host to vanish into thin air at their party, or whatever. Gathering.”

Mae’s eyes drift to the orange circle at Bea’s mouth, the shape of her lips behind it, and then back to the square on the ground. “I… I think I need more minutes, Bae Bae.”

She doesn’t need to see Bea rolling her eyes to know she is.

“Counterpoint, Maeday,” Bea says. “I read this thing. A change is as good as a break.”

“Depends what you break.”

“Hardy-ha. Maybe it was that change is as good as a rest, actually. The point is it’s applicable here. I think coming out here was a change from the party. But now you should make a change from being out here.”

Mae scuffs her round toe against the dark ground, outside the square of light. She could just lift her toe and step into the square, right? Be part of it.

But she wouldn’t actually be inside the light anyway. There’s so many levels to this mine.

“Not like you not to ramble on,” Bea says. Her shoes scrape against the yard concrete again as she moves a little closer to Mae. 

“Some minutes are really shit,” Bea says. “These are just some of them. It’ll be better if you come inside.”

“You think?” Mae says. She doesn’t feel grateful or understood. Nonetheless, Bea’s proximity is nice.

“No. Nothing good can come from being inside where it’s warm and pizza is imminent,” Bea says sarcastically.

Mae pricks up her ears. “Pizza?”

“It’s a Mae Borowski party. There’s gonna be pizza.”

Bea takes a long drag on her cigarette, the tip fizzing on the edge of hearing. Out of the corner of her eye Mae sees the orange circle of the cigarette smouldering more brightly, and it draws her gaze away from the yellow square of light at her feet.

“Nothing’s gonna change if I go in there,” Mae admits.

Bea shrugs and the little glowing circle bobs in the air. “That’s not true,” she says after a few moments. “There will be pizza.”

“You ordered it?”

“No, you’re gonna order it. I had a long day.” Bea turns her head and blows out her lungful of cigarette smoke, which rapidly dissipates from a grey sphere into nothing. Mae smells it in the air around them.

“What’s gonna change if you stay out here?” Bea asks.

“I guess I’ll get hungry instead of getting pizza.”

“Exactly.” Bea shifts her weight purposefully. “So let’s go. I’m hungry. Also this cigarette is done.”

Mae takes a step, leaving the yellow square behind to follow Bea and the light of her cigarette, glowing in the dark. Like in the mine. No longer only a shape, though.

She doesn’t enter the light at all. Later, when she’s in the kitchen making fun of Bea’s uneven pizza slicing skills with Gregg, she glances out into the yard, sees her shadow inside the yellow square on the ground.

She’s managed to get inside the light without even noticing. Just by taking a completely different path. Maybe it will be that easy in real life too, someday.


End file.
